The Sultanate of Oman’s Ministry of Finance has announced the foundation of a new state-owned energy company, media reports said. The new company is called the Energy Development Oman (EDO) Company. The purpose of the new company is to transfer government stake in Concession Area 6 to EDO.
The new company will be funded by Oman’s oil revenue and it will also develop and expand the sector and pump more investments to bolster financial and economic returns of the state. The new company will work on oil and gas explorations and also renewable energy projects.
According to the Gazette, the new company will “borrow or raise money and/or financing of any nature” and use “defined or identifiable cash flows, revenues, receivables or assets (including those which are Shariah compliant) to issue securities in one or more tranches to investors in Oman and/or other countries.”
Oman plans to generate 35 percent of the country’s total revenue from non-oil sources as early as next year. The Omani government plans to diversify the economy and increase the sources of the national income. It is a key part of the Ministry of Finance’s Medium Term Fiscal Plan (MTFP), which also aims to provide decent standards of living, build a sustainable economy, and bring the country’s debt levels to a manageable position.
The contribution of non-oil revenue has been measured at OMR488 million for 2020, OMR565 million for 2021, OMR830 million for 2022, OMR1.27 billion for 2023, and OMR1.38 billion for 2024.